Don't Ask Don't Tell
by laumae
Summary: The morning after Sam babysits Cassie, but something odd has happened.


Title: I wrote Fluff Author: Laumae Email: loemae@yahoo.com Category/Pairings: Romance, Fluff Rating: PG Content Warnings: none Summary: Sam baby-sits Cassie, but Janet never shows to pick her up. The next morning the situation unveils itself to Jack. Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, titles; they belong to MGM, Gekko, etc. Archive: Gateworld, Fanfiction.net Author's Note: I love feedback, and criticism.  
  
****************************************  
  
"Carter? Are you all right? You look kind of upset today." Jack asked, concerned when Sam sat down for breakfast at the commissary.  
  
"Fine sir, just stayed up too late last night." She said groggily.  
  
"Oh? Had a date did you?" He asked with a silly expression, but she could tell that he was asking a serious question.  
  
"No." she said giggling. "Unless you count having Cassie over as a date, but I call it babysitting."  
  
"Nope doesn't count. Where was Janet last night?"  
  
"She was actually getting married in Vegas."  
  
Jack flicked up his eyebrow. "Oh, to whom?"  
  
Sam nodded toward the kissing couple across the room.  
  
Jack looked and with a shocked look on his face turned back to Sam. He was speechless.  
  
"I know I was shocked when she picked Cassie up this morning."  
  
"How long do you think it's been going on?"  
  
"Well, Janet doesn't seem like a person who makes rash decisions, but he on the other hand. I don't know. But I remember having a conversation with Janet last week, in which she asked about what I thought of him."  
  
"Well what did you say?"  
  
"I said he was like a brother to me. I told her that he might have a hard time going into any long term relationship, after what happened with his wife, but I guess I was wrong."  
  
"Yeah, Daniel can be hard to figure out sometimes."  
  
"I never thought you would understand him better than I would." Sam said a little shocked.  
  
"Why not? We're friends too. Granted we didn't get along for a while, but once I got to know him, he really wasn't that bad." Sam glanced back over at the couple. Janet and Daniel were snuggling on a bench, completely unaware of the surroinding world, and completely french kissing.  
  
"This is creeping me out, I think I'll eat breakfast in my lab today." Sam said, then she left the room. Jack was left alone.  
  
It didn't take long for him to get freaked out as well, so he quickly followed her.  
  
"Hey wait up Carter."  
  
"Hey sir. Decided to join me?"  
  
"Yeah, it's just too strange to see Daniel and Janet kiss." He shook trying to dispel the image from his head.  
  
"I know what you mean." Then she looked at him. "Jack is all your going to have a simple carton of milk?"  
  
"Sure why not?" He said nonchalantly.  
  
"That isn't a real breakfast! What would happen if we were called off world?"  
  
"I dunno, I'd probably just eat a meal bar on the way to the gate room." Sam was dismayed.  
  
"Colonel! You can't pull 22 hours of combat on a meal bar!" Sam said getting angrier. They got into her lab, and she slammed the door shut.  
  
"Carter, calm down. I only eat poorly when I get to work late." Jack said in a futile attempt to get Sam to calm down. Something was up with her. Her hormones were going crazy. Jack tried to think, when was it that women started menopause?  
  
"Sir, I know I am overreacting, but I just hate to see you harm yourself. I mean our job is so difficult anyway, without putting more stress on you." Sam said trying to control her emotions. She started to think back to what her mother had told her. Was it really true that women started getting signs of menopause in their thirties?  
  
"Thank you." Jack said. Sam was baffled. Did he really just thank her for yelling at him?  
  
"Your welcome. Sir, you really should eat better."  
  
"I know. What about you? Do you take care of yourself?" Jack asked continuing to baffle her.  
  
"Physically or emotionally?" She said with a laugh. "We never solved the Daniel / Janet problem. How long have they been dating?"  
  
"Well about a month ago Daniel was talking to me and I mentioned the needle doctor from hell. That didn't go over to well and he was about to say something when he changed his mind. So I think they have been dating for a month, anyway how are you? You seem to be going through a hormonal high right now." He said, hoping he used the correct terminology.  
  
"I'm glad you care, but I am taking good care of myself."  
  
"Good, it would be a shame to harm your skills in the Air Force. Who else would save my butt every time I was stranded off world?" He asked jokingly.  
  
"I can't imagine life without you sir."  
  
"Neither can I." He said sentimentally, then quickly added on, "After all it would be hard to live my life if I wasn't in it." He laughed breaking the sweet mood that had fallen.  
  
"Did you mean the first part of that?" Sam asked cornering him. He simply gave up.  
  
"Of course I did, Sam." When he said her name she caught her breath. She loved the way he said it. At that moment, she never wanted to hear the name Carter ever again. Jack also caught this mistake. There had always been an unspoken agreement that maybe if they never said each other's name then they might avoid the inevitable and keep their professional relationship and jobs a little longer. "Sorry." He apologized, knowing he had broken the unspoken rule.  
  
"Why be sorry? It was just a slip of the tongue, and besides what harm could it do? Don't answer that." Sam said quickly.  
  
"This is just the first breakdown of our little law. Our professionalism is disintegrating." Jack warned.  
  
"I know, sir. It has been falling apart for a while."  
  
"I wonder if this was how it was for Daniel and Janet?" Jack said curiously.  
  
"Could be. We could ask?" Sam said helpfully. Jack finished off his milk and tossed it in the trash can.  
  
"Score!"  
  
"Congratulations, you just threw something in the trash can." Sam said in a mock announcer's voice.  
  
"Oh yeah I'd like to see you do it." Jack said defending his title.  
  
Sam picked up a piece of trash from her tray and expertly through it at the trash can, not, however, in the trash can. Jack laughed.  
  
"I'll show you." She tried again and again, finally she decided desperate measures must be taken. As she got more and more misses, he was laughing so hard his eyes were shut. She snuck behind him quickly but quietly. She carefully positioned her hands, then pulled his chair from out under him.  
  
Jack quickly got up, astonished that Sam, *Sam* did this. Then he quickly retaliated. He went to her desk and took out some of the papers that she needed to sign and signed, in pen, a famous name like James T. Kirk.  
  
"Hey!" She said running over to him, trying to take the pen away from him. He, of course, was much stronger than her, and kept his grip very well. They were both so caught up in teasing one another that it didn't even don on them that Sam was in between his arms with her hands prying at one of his hands trying to get the pen back, while he was trying to switch the pen to the other hand. She got it out of his hands.  
  
"Oh no you don't!" He gleefully said to her. He wrapped his arms around her stomach and forced her gently to the ground. He pinned one of her arms then focused on getting the pen from the other hand. It was nice to have a fun relief from all the stress they went under day in and day out. She squirmed to get up. "Sorry, but you can not be trusted to get up. Who knows you might just try to steal my pen again."  
  
"Sir, it's my pen." In a very quick movement, Sam wiggled her self out of Jack's pinning and stood up, leaving him crouched on the ground. "You're in for it now buddy!" She jumped on his back, and got the pen back. He stood up. He was tall, she realized! She was holding on to his neck, carefully not choking him, and her feet were dangling. She let go, and dropped to the ground, he spun around, trying to make sure she hadn't gotten hurt. While he was spinning she grabbed his arm and got the pen back. This time he didn't move to get it back though. The situation finally caught up with him.  
  
As he realized what was going on so did she. She could smell his aftershave. He wanted to grab her and kiss her not unlike Janet and Daniel did that morning. His mind screamed at him. REGULATIONS! It repeated over and over again. It told him to keep his job. He had listened to the same voice in his head for seven years! Too bad, he told it.  
  
He carefully took the pen away from Sam, and set it on the table. He put one hand around her waist and the other behind her head. He dipped her down, and was about to kiss her when the intercom sounded.  
  
"Sir, it just said for us to go to the debriefing room." Sam said as he lifted her back up.  
  
"So? We can be a little late can't we?" She looked at him with pleading eyes.  
  
"I want this, Sam. I want to have a white picket fence with you." Jack said despairingly.  
  
"I do too, Jack." She reached up and kissed him. A deep passionate kiss. The intercom sounded again. They broke apart. "Come on, Sir."  
  
"Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter, please report to the debriefing room." The intercom sounded.  
  
"You go on up Carter, I'll go in a little while so no one suspects anything."  
  
"Thank you sir." Sam said and with that she left.  
  
***********************************************  
  
When Jack got to the debriefing room, he was amazed to see Major Davis there. He didn't think anything had gone wrong, so this was unusual indeed.  
  
"Good morning Colonel O'Neill." Davis respectfully said. Sam was already sitting across from General Hammond. Jack sat next to her.  
  
"It has come to my attention that your feelings for one another are not as professional as they should be." Hammond began. Sam and Jack froze. Uh Oh! "I believe something should be done about this."  
  
"Sir, I know the regulations as well as or even better than you do. I can assure you what ever feelings I may have for my second will not interfere in our working relationship."  
  
"Colonel, I know that is not the case. But I appreciate your concern for your jobs. Which is actually the reason why I called you here. You are two of the best officers I have ever had the privilege of working with; I would be a fool to loose you. So I have worked out a deal with the president and the pentagon, to try to save you from your own emotions before you did something you regretted."  
  
Jack and Sam got a little more scared, what if they were going to separate them.  
  
Davis stepped in. "Have you heard of how some laws have been disbanded?" They nodded. "For instance the military rules on homosexuality have changed to a "don't ask don't tell" policy. As of yesterday at eight P.M., the don't ask don't tell policy was expanded to include fraternization among officers working together." Sam's heart not only skipped a beat, it skipped several and then played hop scotch.  
  
Hammond stared at their reaction to the news, as Davis read the contract that approved this new policy. When Davis finished he grabbed his hat saluted then left the room.  
  
"Thank you for coming to this unorthodox briefing, and staying through it. You are dismissed." With that Sam and Jack walked out of the room.  
  
"Carter, I think we need to talk." Jack said slowly waking up from his coma.  
  
"I do too, sir." They went to the commissary, glad to find that Janet and Daniel had taken their love fest somewhere else.  
  
"Do you want to go slow?" Jack asked caringly, but also seriously.  
  
"Isn't eight years slow enough?" Sam asked back.  
  
"Eight? I was thinking seven."  
  
"No, I have been counting, I have loved you for eight years. Ever since the Antarctic incident." Sam said.  
  
"Really? I have loved you since Hathor abducted us all and told me you were dead."  
  
"Wait, you just said you loved me. I love you Jack. Je vous aime!" She said quoting something she had heard in a convention in France that she thought might mean I love you. She was right, it meant I love you, but…it is the formal way of saying it, so she should have said Je t'aime. At the convention they did that on purpose.  
  
Jack grabbed her hand. His soft touch sent chills up her spine.  
  
"Samantha Jean Carter, I love you. Will you surrender to me trying to build a white picket fence? Even though I have all ready painted my previous black?" He asked hopefully.  
  
Sam leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him.  
  
"Jonathon Scott O'Neill, with two L's, I will surrender gleefully to your white picket fence building. I'll even help you paint it." She buried her face in his neck and spoke the forbidden words. "I love you Jack."  
  
Unknown to them, Teal'c came and sat by them eating something new the cooks had made for him. When they became aware of his presence they parted.  
  
"T, buddy, why didn't you say something?" Jack asked suspicious that he was one of the rumor mill's agents.  
  
"Have not you and Major Carter felt this way for many years?" Teal'c asked in his beaming Teal'c-ishness.  
  
"Yes, but that has nothing to do with it." Sam interjected.  
  
"On the contrary, I did not wish to disrupt your happiness." Teal'c said. Jack and Sam just laughed.  
  
Daniel came into the commissary looking for Sam.  
  
"Hey Sam, have you finished your diagnostics on the artifact we got from P9X-391?" Daniel asked anxiously. His face had lipstick on it; it looked like he had tried to wipe it off, but failed.  
  
"Oh! I completely forgot, something came up this morning. Sir, we should probably get back to work, it is already ten A.M."  
  
"Thanks. Bye T', see ya later."  
  
************************************  
  
"Hey, Sam!" Jack called as he watched her go into the elevator. A smile lit her face. She hadn't seen him since the commissary that morning and had wondered what had happened to him.  
  
She held the elevator door open for him. He ran in.  
  
"Leaving so soon?" He asked comically.  
  
"I have already worked an hour overtime today!" She replied.  
  
"Well, my lovely lady. I have made plans for us." He said grinning.  
  
"What might those be?"  
  
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. She responded, cradling his head in her hands. The elevator door flew open. Two new recruits gasped and said they would take the other elevator.  
  
Sam and Jack stopped kissing, still ecstatic at their new found ability to love one another.  
  
"Wherever we're going, I want to take my car. So just in case you have some hidden agenda I can get a way quickly." Sam said heading for her car.  
  
"Sorry Sam, but I want this to be a surprise. I have already arranged it and everything. All you have to do is show up, and of course be surprised." Jack said taking her hand and leading her to his car. He placed a blindfold over her eyes, and helped her into the car. It was a quiet drive, but that was okay. He didn't mind not talking, just being there, *with her* was enough.  
  
**********************************************  
  
The car stopped. Sam's stomach did flip-flops. She heard the car door open. Jack grabbed her hand and helped her out. He lead her up a small flight of stairs.  
  
"Stay here Sam." he said leaving her by, what she thought, was a table. She could hear him whispering to someone, but she couldn't make out whom he was speaking to.  
  
She couldn't believe that they were technically engaged! She had longed to be engaged to him for so long, and perhaps he didn't propose in the manner she would have preferred, but who cares! He proposed, that's the only thing that mattered.  
  
Someone came over to her and took her hand. She knew it couldn't be Jack, for this person had female hands. Sam was lead into a room, then the person removed her blindfold.  
  
"Janet! What's going on? Jack said it was a surprise." Sam asked surprised.  
  
"Jack talked to Hammond today to get the day off, then he arranged all this just for you. Personally I think it is all terribly romantic. Of course it isn't as good as Daniel's surprise for me but hey, it is only Jack." Janet said sighing contentedly.  
  
Sam gave her a half glare.  
  
"Anyway, look at this!" Janet said continuing on, with out paying any attention to the glare. She slid back a curtain to one of the closets and a beautiful wedding gown winked at her from inside the closet.  
  
"Oh my word!" Sam gasped happily. The gown was white with blue trimmings, the same color of the event horizon. It looked the perfect size. It was a smooth dress, and not one of those poofy frilly things. It was elegant, and would match Sam to a T.  
  
"Jack didn't think you would mind a surprise wedding, and I warned him against it." Janet said excitedly.  
  
"Well, I would've preferred to throw my own wedding, but if he has arranged everything then I know it must be good." Sam said, starting to doubt the wisdom of this surprise.   
  
"Oh I made sure he didn't forget anything. Your gonna love it Sam." Janet was smiling ear-to-ear, "Well go on and change, I am about to talk to the pastor. I'll come back when you are ready, then explain how everything is going to go down."  
  
"Thanks Janet." Sam said as Janet left the room. Sam changed into the gown. It looked better on her than she would have thought. There was a bureau on the opposite wall with all sorts of make up and hair things. Sam did her hair and make up in the style she thought flattered her features best. Just as she was finishing up, Janet knocked on the door.  
  
"Come in." Sam called.  
  
"You look gorgeous Sam. Anyway, Jacob just got here. Jack will walk down the isle to the "MacGyver" theme song, then you and Jacob will walk down to "I'm not alone now." Then Jacob will kiss you, and the services will begin."  
  
"Good, I don't know about the "MacGyver" theme song, but…"I'm not alone now" is a very pretty song." Sam said getting more and more doubtful. Jack's favorite phrase is Plan A never works.  
  
The "MacGyver" theme song began playing. Sam was standing at the back of the chapel. She watched him walk seriously down the isle. Then her song started. She wrapped her arm around her dad's and did the wedding walk.  
  
Like always Plan A never works. Suddenly the room was bombarded with light. All the Asgard they had ever met, Lya, Oma Desala, and a very teary eyed Anise were suddenly beamed into the chapel. Sam couldn't help but laugh. She looked behind her, all the Tok'ra were there as well. Janet and Daniel were smiling in the front row, looking pleased with themselves, and Sam continued her saunter down the isle.  
  
They came to a stop. Jacob kissed his only daughter then stepped to the side.  
  
Jack and Sam were instructed to hold hands. Sam's hands were so cold. Jack's hands were warm. Sam was comforted, by those facts. 'Everything will be all right.' she told herself. The wedding ceremony went without any more distractions. Everything was all right. Sam had waited eight years to receive her prince charming, and now she had him.  
  
End.  
  
*****************  
  
What did you think? 


End file.
